I’m squeezing this post in, in between my Vietnam series, because this week is your last chance to catch the fabulous exhibition Nyonya Needlework at the Peranakan Museum Singapore.
Beaded tassels.
Peranakan Museum Singapore
The Peranakan Museum is a delightful museum, which I visit about once per year.
The building is beautiful outside and inside and the exhibits are interesting and beautifully displayed.
Who are the Peranakans
The Museum features everything about the Peranakans in Singapore, the so-called Straits Chinese or Straits-born Chinese.
Portraits of some of Singapore’s Peranakans of today. Bottom right: Peranakans in the olden days.
Peranakan is Malay for ‘child’ or ‘born of’. The term was used to refer to a person of mixed ethnic origin. Specifically those born out of marriages between traders from all over the world who married local wives and settled in South East Asia. The term dates back to the 15th century.
In the Peranakan culture, the men are called ‘baba’, while women are called ‘nonya’.
The Singaporean Peranakan community consists of descendants from the Baba community aka the Peranakan Chinese, there are Jawi Peranakans (from Indian Muslims) and Chitty Melaka (from Hindu traders from India).
Visit the Peranakan Museum to find out more.
Nyonya Needlework
The Peranakans have their own cuisine, specific rituals and wedding ceremonies, special clothes and they are famous for their artistic needlework, embroidery and beadwork.
Peranakan furniture.
Traditional Peranakan ceremonial costumes.
Ceremonial headgear.
The bead craft and embroidery art is magnificently highlighted in this exhibition that ends on the 18th, so in a week from now.
Beaded Peranakan mules are very pretty.
If you have not seen it yet, please GO there and check it out!
Isn’t this mind-blowing? Look closely; even the backgrounds are completely beaded!
While exploring the various rooms at the museum, more than once the beadwork took my breath away.
Spectacular. I love the deer and the bird. And how cool are those creatures? What are they? Dragons? Dogs? Tigers?
The intricate details, the immaculate workmanship, the delicate color schemes…it’s truly amazing.
Decorative beaded fish; cute!
The women who made these table cloths, beaded mules, bags and decorative fabrics used gold and metal threads, silk floss and an endless amount of tiny, tiny beads.
Metal thread. So much work must have gone in here!
The largest table cloth is made out of over a million glass beads!!!
So hurry up and visit this beautiful exhibition before it’s gone! Click on the link in the top of this article to find all the info you need, like the address and opening hours.
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